Titles Reviewed in LATE REVIEWS

I had to sort my "Late Reviews" in Wormwood and other places, and ended up making a list (alphabetical by author) of the reviews in my collection Late Reviews, so I thought I'd post it here.  The entries marked with an asterisk were not published in Wormwood (issues 1-30), but appear in the collection. Also, many of the reviews originally published in Wormwood were updated (usually with new biographical information) for the collection. (More details, and ordering information, here.)

*Adcock, A. St. John. The World That Never Was

Aickman, Robert. The Late Breakfasters

Aickman, Robert. Panacea

*Aiken, Conrad. Punch

[anon.] The Haunted Hunt

[anon] An Introduction to Islandia

[anon]. My Grimmest Nightmare

Antrobus, C.L. The Wine of Finvarra and Other Stories

Armour, Donald. Swept & Garnished

*Baum, L. Frank. The Wizard of Oz [play]

Bennett, Arnold. “Strange Stories of the Occult”

*Benson, Stella. Living Alone

Bernard, John. The New Race of Devils

Birnstingl, Edgar Magnus. Destur Mobed and Other Stories

*Blackwood, Algernon. Sambo and Snitch

Blakeston, Oswell. Boys in Their Ruin and Others

Butler, David. The Men Who Mastered Time

*Cadnum, Michael. Invisible Mirror

Caine, Hall. The Demon Lover

Carleton, S. The Forest Runner

Carové, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Story without an End

Carr, Cameron. Gilded Clay

Carroll, Jonathan Samuel. Looney Tunes

Cartmell, Esmé. Rescue in Ravensdale

Cearnach, Conall. The Fatal Move and Other Stories

Chambers, Robert W. In Search of the Unknown

Childe, Wilfred Rowland. Dream English

Christmas, Grace V. What Father Cuthbert Knew

*Cline, Leonard. The Dark Chamber

*Cline, Leonard. God Head

*Corwen, Maxwell. Ole Man Swordfish

Counihan, Daniel. Unicorn Magic

*Crawford, F. Marion. Wandering Ghosts

*Dahl, Roald. Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories

Dawson, Annie. The Edge of the World

de Comeau, Alexander. Monk’s Magic

de Hamong, Count Leigh. A Study of Destiny

Drake, Burgess. Hush-a-by Baby

Drake, H.B. Shinju

*Dunn, Gertrude. The Mark of the Bat

*Dunsany, Lord. Guerrilla

*Dunsany, Lord. The Pleasures of a Futuroscope

*Dupont, Inge, and Hope Mayo (eds). Morgan Library Ghost Stories

Durand, Orson. Necromancy Street and Other Tales

*Dyalhis, Nictzin. The Dark Lore

Dyllington, Anthony. The Unseen Thing

Egan, Beresford. Pollen

Egbert, H. M. The Sea-Demons

Ellis, T.E. Children of Don

L’Epine, Chas. The Devil in a Domino and The Lady of the Leopard

Ewers, Hanns Heinz. Edgar Allan Poe

Faber, Geoffrey. Elnovia

*Fallada, Hans, Sparrow Farm

Fay, Erica. The Road to Fairyland

Fessier, Michael. Clovis

Fessier, Michael. Fully Dressed and in His Right Mind

Francis, Francis. Eternal Emnity

Frank, Waldo. Chalk Face

Freyer, Dermot. Night on the River

Garnett, David. Lady into Fox

Gaskell, Jane. The Shiny Narrow Grin

Gerould, Katharine Fullerton. Vain Oblations

Gibson, Eva Katharine. Zauberlinda

Goddard, Richard E. The Whistling Ancestors

Grant, Alan. It Walks the Woods

*Green, Julian. Christine and Other Stories

*Green, Roger Lancelyn. The Castle in Lyonesse

*Green, Roger Lancelyn. The Land of the Lord High Tiger

*Green, Roger Lancelyn. The Wood That Time Forgot

Gregory, Franklin. The White Wolf

Hall, Leland Sinister House

Hamel, Frank. Tiger Wolves

Hansom, Mark. The Shadow on the House

Hansom, Mark. The Wizard of Berner’s Abbey

Harding, John William. A Conjuror of Phantoms

*Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. The Monarch of Dreams

*Inman, Arthur Crewe. Of Castle Terror

Jepson, Edgar. No. 19

Jessopp, Augustus. The Phantom Coach and Other Ghost Stories
     of an Antiquary

Jolly, Stratford D. The Soul of the Moor

Kallas, Aino. The Wolf’s Bride

Keary, C.F. ’Twixt Dog and Wolf

Kilmarnock, Lord. Ferelith

Kirk, Russell. Old House of Fear

Knapp, George L. The Face of Air

Lamkey, Rosemary. The Lonely Dwarf

Leather, Robinson and Richard Le Gallienne. The Student and
     the Body-Snatcher and

Other Trifles

Le Corbeau, Adrien. The Forest Giant

Lee, Vernon. The Ballet of Nations

Leech, Joseph. Ghosts and Glamour

*Leiber, Fritz. The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich

Leman, Bob. Worms

*Lindsay, David. Devil's Tor

Lindsay, David. The Witch

*Lortz, Richard. Children of the Night

*Maby, J. Cecil. By Stygian Waters

Macardle, Dorothy. Earth-bound

Macdonald, Ronald. The Laughing Elf

*Macleod, Fiona. The Hills of Reuel and Other Stories

Matthewman, S. The Crystal Casket

Metcalfe, John My Cousin Geoffrey

Miller, Sutro. Ghost Stories

Mills, Lady Dorothy. The Dark Gods

*Monette, Paul. Sanctuary

Moore, Frank Frankfort The Other World

Morant, H.C. F. Whirlaway

Morris, R.A.V. The Lyttleton Case

Morrough, E.R. The Temple Servant and Other Stories

Muddock, J.E. The Shadow Hunter

*Muilenburg, Walter J. Prairie

Munster, The Countess of. Ghostly Tales

Neale, Arthur, ed. The Great Weird Stories

Nicholson, John. Costello—Physic Investigator

O’Hagan, Howard. Tay John

*Pain, Barry. Stories in the Dark

*Pain, Barry. Three Fantasies

Paton, Raymond. The Tale of Lal

*Paul, Phyllis. Camilla

*Paul, Phyllis. The Children Triumphant

Paul, Phyllis We Are Spoiled

*Peake, Mervyn. Boy in Darkness

Pemberton, Clive. The Weird o’ It

Pendered, Mary L. The Secret of the Dragon

Pendered, Mary L. The Uncanny House

*Peterson, Margaret. Moonflowers

Phillpotts, Eden. The Lavender Dragon

An Pilibin (John Hackett Pollack). A Tale of Thule

Pin, Herbert Moore. A Vampire of Souls

Plarr, Marion. Cynara

Plarr, Victor. Thor and the Giants

Prosper, James [Barry Pain]. A Mountain Apart

Ransome, Arthur. The Elixir of Life

Ransome, Arthur. Highways and Byways in Fairyland

Ridley, Guy. The Word of Teregor

*Robbins, Tod. Close Their Eyes Tenderly

Robbins, Tod. In the Shadow

*Robbins, Tod. The Scales of Justice and Other Poems

*Robbins, Tod. Silent, White and Beautiful and Other Stories

Robbins, Tod. The Spirit of the Town

Russell, Ray. The Case Against Satan

St. John, J. Allen. The Face in the Pool

Salmon, Arthur L. The Ferry of Souls

Saltoun, M. After

Saul, George Brandon. Liadain and Curithir

Savage, Henry. The Receding Shore

Savery, Constance. Tenthragon

Sawyer, Nesta. The Reason of the Beginning and Other Imaginings

Segal, Lesley Keen. Many Enchantments

Sheppard, Ethel. The Sun-Worshippers

Sherry, Oliver. Mandrake

Shortt, Vere D. and Frances Mathews. The Rod of the Snake

Sime, S. H. A Curious Case

*Sloane, William M., III. Runner in the Snow

Southby, Logi. The White Dragon

*Stanton, Will. Once Upon a Time Is Enough

Steele, V.M. Hunters of Humans

*Stevens, Francis. Sunfire

Steward, Samuel M. Pan and the Fire-Bird

Stock, E. Elliot The Ring of Ug and Other Stories

*Suster, Gerald. The Devil's Maze

Swithin, Antony. Princes of Sandastre

Thacker, Eric and Athony Earnshaw. Musrum

Thrush, Arthur The Capture of Nina Carroll

Timlin, William M. The Ship That Sailed to Mars

Tourneur, Nigel. Hidden Witchery

Verne, Jules. An Antarctic Mystery

Viereck, George Sylvester. The House of the Vampire

Visiak, E.H. The Shadow (1936)

Visiak, E.H. The Shadow (1967-68)

Waite, Arthur Edward. The Golden Stairs

*Wandrei, Donald. The Eye and the Finger

Wason, Sandys. Palafox

Weston, Jessie. The Soul of the Countess and Other Stories

Whitehead, Henry S. Pinkie at Camp Cherokee

Wilson, Colin. Metamorphosis of the Vampire

Woodiwiss, John C. Some New Ghost Stories

*Wormser, G. Ranger. The Scarecrow and Other Stories

Wray, Roger. The Dweller in the Half-Light

Wright, R.H. The Outer Darkness

*Wuorio, Eva-Lis. Escape If You Can

*Wyke-Smith, E.A. Bill of the Bustingforths

Belated Announcement: David Lindsay's Sphinx and Leonard Cline's The Cult Murders

A few titles were delayed last year at various stages for various reasons. I now announce them both. First is  Sphinx, by David Lindsay, for which I wrote a new Introduction.

In Sphinx (1923), Nicholas Cabot has come to a country-house called Mereway where he plans to work on a machine he has invented that records dreams. He encounters a family with three marriageable daughters, and takes refuges from them in the company of some neighbors, including the calculating Celia Hantish and the well-known composer Lore Jensen, who has written a tune called “Sphinx" which hints at the riddle of existence. Meanwhile as Cabot experiments with his machine, he finds that dreams give access to a deeper meaning of life.

Sphinx, by David Lindsay

Trade paperback edition ($20.00) sold via Amazon (and other  affiliates) ISBN 9781987594317.

Amazon.com at this link. Amazon.co.uk at this link.

Kindle edition, sold via Amazon and affiliates.

 

Next is The Cult Murders, by Leonard Cline, writing as Alan Forsyth.  This is the first of Cline's three pseudonymous pulp thrillers, written while he was in jail for manslaughter.  To be fair, Cline didn't think much of his pulp writing, and it is negligible in comparison with Cline's serious literary work under his own name.  But that doesn't mean that his pulp-writing is without interest or merit. The Cult Murders concerns a Devil worshiping cult set up to fleece rich women of their fortunes. Originally serialized in 1928, this is the first appearance in book form.

The Cult Murders, by Leonard Cline, writing as Alan Forsyth

Trade paperback edition ($16.00) sold via Amazon (and other affiliates) ISBN 9780359403783.
Amazon.com at this link.  Amazon.co.uk at this link.

Kindle edition, sold via Amazon and affiliates. 

More New Releases

Some of these debuted at the Medievalist's Congress a few weeks ago, but took a while to wend their ways through other channels.  Ordering and format details are at the bottom of this post.

First up is Fingers of Fear, by J.U. Nicolson, originally published in 1937.  This comes from the original dust-wrapper blurb:

Good horror stories are among the great rarities of the publishing world. We are fortunate in having this thrilling narrative unfolded by J.U. Nicolson, whose rich imagination has produced such volumes of poetry as “The King of the Black Isles” and “Sonnets of a Minnesinger,” and whose already well developed ability to spin a tale was sharpened during the long years he spent on his monumental modern English version of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It is with good reason, then, that we expect Fingers of Fear to take its place beside such great horror stories as Dracula and The Turn of the Screw.

 I introduced the 2001 Midnight House limited edition reprint of Fingers of Fear, and have updated my Introduction for this new edition. 

J(ohn) U(rban) Nicolson (1885-1944) was a Chicago warehouse manager with literary interests. Fingers of Fear (1937) was his only novel, a precursor to the melodramatic horror of the 1960s like the television show Dark Shadows.

Next up is Monk's Magic, originally published in 1931, a delightful precursor to Mervyn Wall's Fursey books. Monk’s Magic, by Alexander de Comeau,  tells the story of Brother Dismas, who works on behalf of his Abbott, stealthily studying the black arts (he has been absolved in advance for his sins), trying to discover the elixir of life. After many failures, Dismas ventures out into the world to find those previous and successful fellow-seekers who must surely still live. Dismas acquires some marvelous friends and grows up during his quest. The tale is Rabelaisian in the best sense, witty and well-written.




Formats and ordering details: 

Fingers of Fear, by J.U. Nicolson, Introduction by Douglas A. Anderson

Trade paperback edition ($16.00) sold via Amazon (and European affiliates) ISBN 9781987626629. Amazon.com at this link. Amazon.co.uk at this link.

Kindle edition, sold via Amazon and affiliates.

Monk’s Magic, by Alexander de Comeau

Trade paperback edition ($16.00) sold via Amazon (and European affiliates) ISBN 9781987508826. Amazon.com at this link.  Amazon.co.uk at this link.

Kindle edition, sold via Amazon and affiliates

Three new books!

This is the first batch of new announcements, as the run-up to the annual Medievalist's Congress in May in Kalamazoo, Michigan, continues.

First, a compilation of my own Late Reviews—my review column of older and odder books that I have done in the first thirty issues of Wormwood, plus additional "late reviews" (new and reprinted from other sources).  In many instances these entries have been revised, as I have learned new things since the original version was published.

“Doug Anderson’s regular ‘Late Reviews’ column in Wormwood is a treasury of information and commentary on some of the rarest, most obscure and strangest books in our field.  It is infused by Doug’s shrewd and unflinching assessments; bad books are named as such, overlooked achievements are justly celebrated.”  —Mark Valentine, editor of Wormwood 

“In his wonderful ‘Late Reviews’ Doug Anderson boldly goes where few readers have gone before.  Rather than write about the familiar classics of fantasy and supernatural literature, he explores the genre’s back alleys and waste lands, rediscovering dozens of strange and strangely appealing titles, most of them half forgotten, if remembered at all. Who else has read Guy Ridley’s The Word of Teregor and John William Harding’s A Conjuror of Phantoms and Erica Fay’s The Road to Fairyland or, it would seem, the complete works of Anthony Dyllington, author of The Unseen Thing? When Doug praised the wit of  Alexander de Comeau’s Monk’s Magic—and likened it to Mervyn Wall’s The Unfortunate Fursey—I immediately went searching for a copy.  Far more than just a collection of  essays, Douglas A. Anderson’s Late Reviews is a valuable reference, a guide for the curious reader and, not least, a source of rare literary entertainment.” —Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author of Classics for Pleasure and On Conan Doyle

Formats and ordering details at bottom.

The second new title is the first reprint in 115 years of Ferelith, by Lord Kilmarnock (1876-1928), with a new introduction by Mark Valentine.  Fans of Ferelith include André Gide and Julian Green.

“This wonderful book made me forget some of my present worries. It is the story of a woman the father of whose child is a phantom—an admirable theme which is artistically treated. . . . It delights me.”  —Julian Green

“This much-needed first reprint offers connoisseurs of the dark fantastic a rare minor masterpiece, too long overlooked. Ferelith should now take its place as one of the strange great visions in the library of the Gothic.” —From the “Introduction” by Mark Valentine

Ordering details at bottom.

And the third title, for now, is Barry Pain's short fantasy novel, with a long subtitle: Going Home: Being the Fantastical Romance of the Girl with Angel Eyes and the Man Who Had Wings. Barry Pain (1864-1928) is remembered today primarily for his excellent short horror stories. Going Home was originally published in 1921. According to Pain himself, writing in 1924, it was well-received by critics but sold poorly (this fact is corroborated by the book’s rarity today). Yet Pain still cited it as his best book. And Pain’s friend and sometime collaborator, James Blythe, noted in his own copy: “In my opinion this is Barry’s best book up to the present.”

Going Home is Nodens Chapbooks No. 4. 

Ordering details:



Late Reviews, by Douglas A. Anderson  

Trade paperback edition ($25.00) sold via Amazon (and European affiliates) ISBN 9781987512564. Amazon.com at this link. Amazon.co.uk at this link. 

Kindle edition, sold via Amazon and affiliates.

Ferelith, by Lord Kilmarnock. Introduction by Mark Valentine.
 

Trade paperback edition ($16.00) sold via Amazon (and European affiliates) ISBN 9781987736700. Amazon.com at this link. Amazon.co.uk at this link. 

Kindle edition, sold via Amazon and affiliates

Going Home, by Barry Pain.

Trade paperback edition ($10.00) sold via Amazon (and European affiliates) ISBN 9781987571288.
Amazon.com at this link. Amazon.co.uk at this link.

Kindle edition, sold via Amazon and affiliates.